Swimmers glide to fourth-place spot

The Norwich men's swimming and diving team ended its season with a 6-5 record and placed fourth in the NEISDA swimming championships in White River Junction.

The Norwich swimming team struggled in prior years but in the past few years Coach Laura Dunn has been shaping up the team.

A Vermont native, Dunn swam varsity for four years at the College of Wooster in Ohio.

The team has been improving; last year the team placed fifth at the swimming championships.

"Really I think our freshmen class stepped up and had an amazing meet, so they are setting up for a fabulous next few years as they continue to build and (be) stronger and faster," Dunn said.

Dunn has been working with the swimmers trying to improve every aspect of their stroke and mental toughness.

Brandon Kelly, 18, a freshman majoring in electrical engineering from Centreville, Md., spoke about how Dunn changed his stroke, making him use his legs more.

"I didn't expect as a freshman to do as well as I did and I know speaking of the other freshmen they were under the same impression. I have never tapered like that before," Kelly said. "It was just an awesome feeling to go to a meet nervous, not really knowing what to expect and really putting out, giving it 100 percent."

Norwich is not known for its swimming, yet it competes at a high level, going up against teams such as Bentley, Colby and Bates.

"Really all season we don't typically rest for our duel meets versus other teams, so it is a hard pace, hard training until you hit the end of January, really step back on the workouts and training so your body can start to recover and you're really setting yourself up for the championships," said team captain Jason Leonard, 20, a junior majoring in architecture.

Dunn has a specific philosophy on training hard during the regular season with minimal rest, but in return it "pays off" at the end of the season during the championships, according to Leonard.

The diving team has also done well.

David Rhoden, 20, a sophomore majoring in communications from Hartford, Conn., has been diving since he was 8 so he is comfortable taking those four steps on the diving board before leaping off.

Norwich had only three divers this season and no guidance from a diving coach, other than some input from Dunn and the leadership of Rhoden.

"The big piece is to get a coach for next year. Rhoden has done very well, the guys have done awesome considering really they were working with each other," Dunn said.

Rhoden is one of the top divers in the conference, recently placing second in the New England Diving Championships.

According to Rhoden, he placed first in just about every meet he competed in.

"Diving is like every other event in swimming, you get points for every place you get," Rhoden said.